Junior barely misses out on pole

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s farewell tour has officially started.

All eyes are on NASCAR’s favorite son as he races Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala., a place where he’s adored by the fans and expected to win every time he gets in his Chevrolet. The crowd roared Saturday in qualifying when he shot to the top of the board, but it was short-lived. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the last driver to qualify, immediately bumped Earnhardt to second. Stenhouse turned a lap at 191.547 mph to put the Roush Fenway Ford on the pole.

Earnhardt leads all active drivers at Talladega with six wins, but has never started from the pole. His lap was 190.780 mph in a Chevrolet.

“I’m pretty happy,” Earnhardt said. “Great lap by Stenhouse and the Roush crew. Would have liked that pole.”

Stenhouse didn’t mind spoiling the Talladega party with his first pole in four years.

“It will be nice to lead the field to the green here,” Stenhouse said. “It’s a cool way to start the weekend.”

Earnhardt announced last week he’s retiring at the end of the season, and this first of two stops at Talladega has him nostalgic for one of his favorite race tracks.

“Thrilled with our car, good speed,” said Earnhardt, who didn’t seem to be joking when he noted a pole would make him eligible to run the preseason “Clash” at Daytona.

“Probably could have sat down and talked to Rick [Hendrick] about running the Clash or something, but let’s see if we can’t try to get another one later on this year.”

There’s some notion that Sunday is a must-win race for Earnhardt, because the start to his final season has not been great. He’s also won only one race at a track other than Daytona or Talladega since 2014. So with his playoff chances dwindling, a victory would be a big boost to this goodbye tour.

Xfinity

Aric Almirola earned the third series victory of his career by holding off a hard-charging pack in the closing laps at Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala.

The car was indeed fast, and Almirola used a fuel-only stop to earn his first series victory since Daytona last year.

A caution for debris set up a restart with 11 laps remaining, and they were frantic at the front of the field. Justin Allgaier, Joey Logano, Elliott Sadler and Almirola all made plays for the Saturday win. Allgaier gave up the lead to Logano on a Logano crossover move, but Almirola got by him.

Logano was third, followed by Ben Kennedy in fourth, then Erik Jones, Matt Tifft and Michael Annett.